Dear Lisa,
You have asked many good questions and I don’t aspire to answer them. The miasms is an area, which has been expanded greatly in homeopathy today, and my thoughts are, being trained as a Hahnemannian, to question the relevance of this expansion with regards to the book of Chronic Diseases.

It is right what you say about how to recognise the sycotic & syphilitic miasm; we have a good working list of active & latent psoric symptoms in the book of Chronic Diseases. If your disease symptoms were not to be found there, you would investigate into the possibility of another miasm being involved, very simple.

Otherwise the symptoms of gonorrhoea & syphilis are described in Chronic Diseases, or a good medical book.

Basically a miasm is an epidemic, as Hahnemann realized when well-indicated remedies failed to work in certain cases. But more specifically they are A COLLECTION OF SYMPTOMS OBSERVED WHICH HAVE BEEN CURED BY ANTI-MIASMATIC REMEDIES.
At that time both syphilis and gonorrhoea were operating at epidemic levels, in the footnote of page 13 of Chronic Diseases Hahnemann talks of how easily cured they are. Changes over 150yrs mean antibiotics, which have robbed disease of external expression, have greatly suppressed Sycosis.
Arthritis, migraines, infertility; are secondary expressions, and there are multiple expressions. Third stage expressions are pathological changes in organs. No longer are they easily identifiable. The true extent of syphilis & TB is also unknown because of these treatments.
I think that is a very important point because it raises the practical problem of how anti miasmatic remedies can treat miasms successfully when their symptoms are to a very large extent hidden.

You asked:
“But, what about if some psoric symptoms are clearly active and some sypmtoms are clearly indicative of sycosis? What kind of state is that?”

This is psora complicated with Sycosis. You see this where gonorrhoea has been treated with anti-biotics and psora is already present. It’s this combining ability, which makes it difficult to cure. When dealing with Sycosis (or syphilis) look in and see what fires it; usually it is psora. Clever psora holds up a mirror when complicated with other miasmas, pretends its Thuja. Psora is the host and gives guest room to others, as they work in its favour. Treat with anti-psorics, then clear Sycotic symptoms arise. Perhaps in the mouth or genitals, they can be brownish, greasy, and cheesy. See page 93 of Chronic Diseases (top) for Psora complicated with drugs; this stands true. The complication, which means the ability to combine, happens with ONLY with active psora, not latent.

You said:
“Also, I understand (rightly or wrongly?) that in order to be susceptible to the sycotic or syphilitic miasm/s one must have psora - the soil in which the other two take root.”

On the second paragraph of page 6 of Chronic Diseases Hahnemann talks of how the primary stage of psora always goes into the second stage NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, no matter how healthy the diet or lifestyle happens to be. Psora is a disease that FIRES ITSELF. This is unlike Syphilis and Sycosis, which in themselves are not life threatening if let run their course.

What speaks against new ‘miasms’ such as the ‘tubercular’ is a few paragraphs from the book of Chronic Diseases (see page 8). Here Hahnemann says that Psora is so large to produce ‘so many chronic maladies, each of which seems to be essentially different from the others, but really is not; as may readily be seen from the agreement of several symptoms common to them which appear as the disease runs it’s course, and also through their being healed by the same remedy.’
Looking at the list of active psoric symptoms it can be seen that TB is Psora.

You said:
“Surely, everyone must be psoric - whether it's dormant or active. I know in CD, Hn says about 80% of cases are psoric. Wonder if this still holds true today...or is everyone psoric (it seems so because it's so contagious.)”

Although it is true that psora is extremely pervasive, see page 33 of Chronic Diseases; Psora is caught at the most appropriate moment, in a single moment, and contagion works through the life force.

It would seem an assumption to believe that no psora free individuals exist. Likewise that Psora is necessarily longstanding in any given case. We can only decide what is psora or not by looking at the history of the disease, and sometimes it’s not even possible to judge.
What persuaded me recently that psora free individuals do actually exist was reading a book of accounts from women who gave birth at home (that means drug free). From the dozens of stories told (Ireland only), there are a few testimonies of completely PAIN FREE labours and births.

Psora is most closely related to sulphur, says Hahnemann.
Beonninghausen says Thuja is most closely related to Sycosis, in his article ‘Anamnesis of Sycosis’ page 148 of his Lesser Writings. But Beonninghausen leaves scientific ground here. It is a constructed conclusion and therefore invalid, one that he can’t back it up with cases. Herring expanded it. Kent took it from there, Ortega followed etc.

Sycosis in the second stage can be contracted through vaccination, although Hahnemann wouldn’t have been aware of that. Some guy from Berlin (no name sorry) noticed this after a smallpox vaccination and giving Thuj, Lyc, and Merc.etc. If one didn’t work he just gave the next. This has historical significance as the Americans picked it up and Ortega gave Sycosis equal rights in his book. That’s how it has been made of equal importance to Psora, but the clinical experience of many homeopaths can confirm Hahnemann’s observation that 8 out of 10 cases are psoric.

Conclusion: Leave it with Hahnemann: Sycosis is gonorrhoea; sometimes it can complicate with psora; rarely it complicates with syphilis.